Im due to start Basic training soon. Somebody told me that basic training is alot easier now, than it was 10 years ago. Especially with new recruits being given yellow and red cards. Apparently, if you feel hard done by or if you cant handle a beasting you can show the pti the card and sit the rest out. How true is this?? and why has it been introduced?

Well, as I am starting my basic quite soon too I thought I'd post and give my 10p's worth, personally I find this idea really funny, as I can't ever imagine giving a PTI a red card without expecting worse to come of it.
Don't know if it's true or not though but if people can't take a beasting then don't join up simple really!
Why have things gone so soft nowadays? Personally I'd be quite partial to a good beasting

I did basic in 04 at Pirbright and it didn't happen then. I believe this is a rumour started in the press about 10 years ago when it was tried and found to be unsuitable.
My experiances during basic were the same as my dads in the 70s. People love to make out they hard it harder when in reality nothing has changed apart from more has to be taught now.

My basic lasted 12 weeks but I believe its 14 now.

Hope that helps, maybe someone has finished more recently

Good luck

P.S you still will get beasted its just called corrective training now.

The rumour about Red Cards and Yellow Card has been going for years and it is never been true. There nearest to this is recruits being given cards to show what punishments are allowed. This happens now as some ATRs and is being adopted across the board. A decent article in 'The Times' explaining it is below ...

Sit out PT and expect to go to jail. I never ended up there but most people did during drill because they couldnt get the hang of marching fast enough. 1 hour later they would come back with their shirts soaked with sweat.

I will also never forget after we had come back from adventure training we had a PFT. They said we didnt work hard enough on the run so we had to do it again but faster than the slowest time, which we did. We then got about 30 seconds to put all the gym matts away which we did.

Then the gym doors shut and they beasted us to buggery for the next 30mins.

I was told by someone that they had direct experience of the cards but it was a good few years back and was only ever a trial that was quickly binned. It has however entered army folklore and gets trotted out every now and again.

Have a look at the two Adult Learning Inspectorate reports 'safer training' to see where things were and 'better training' to see where things are now.

My advice to you is not to worry about it and just try your best. Remind yourself every day that things could be worse - you could be in the Royal Air Farce.

I was told by someone that they had direct experience of the cards but it was a good few years back and was only ever a trial that was quickly binned. It has however entered army folklore and gets trotted out every now and again.

Have a look at the two Adult Learning Inspectorate reports 'safer training' to see where things were and 'better training' to see where things are now.

My advice to you is not to worry about it and just try your best. Remind yourself every day that things could be worse - you could be in the Royal Air Farce.

lol, seems amusing! even if the cards were true I would never use them, that's one of the reasons why I'm joining the army - for the HARD training, I won't be pleased if they have made it easier (which I doubt), sounds kinky, but I want beastings, pain and punishment lol

Probably never happened and hopefully never will. What p1ssed me off when I passed out was that all the NCOs were under the impression that we'd been issued these cards in training and kept giving us stick about them. May have been trialed but more likely someone heard about it in a dream once before waking up in the Guardroom.

Don't sweat it just try your best. The cards to my knowledge do not exist well at least where I went, Bassingbourn. If you try to sit it out you will BE SWEATING A LOT AND OTHER FLUIDS MAY BE COMING FROM YOUR PUNY ORFICES. Try your best and it will be okay.

I did basic in 04 at Pirbright and it didn't happen then. I believe this is a rumour started in the press about 10 years ago when it was tried and found to be unsuitable.
My experiances during basic were the same as my dads in the 70s. People love to make out they hard it harder when in reality nothing has changed apart from more has to be taught now.

My basic lasted 12 weeks but I believe its 14 now.

Hope that helps, maybe someone has finished more recently

Good luck

P.S you still will get beasted its just called corrective training now.

edited for my mong spelling

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10 years Try about 60, I passed out of depot in 88 and one of the first things I was asked when I got to my regiment was "is it true you got red and yellow cards ?" It goes back even further thatn that as I met a bloke who claimed they had them in National Service, its all bollox and I would place money on some lad next year asking the same thing.

Training was harder 10 years ago ? I can tell you now that training has got increasingly easier every year I know that becuase I tell everyone that it was harder in my day and when I went to the regiment everyone claimed my training was easy compared to when they went through it, and there dads would scorn them as obviously training was much harder when they went through it.

I did some math and worked out by multiplying time by a double hard factor of 4.8 that to get through basic training in the 1900's you had to be 12 foot tall, arms the size of Garth and be able to run a PFT in 4 mins 30secs. By dividing the amount by a brutality factor of 2 I discovered that training was so harsh then that everyone was beaten to death on a daily basis, not to sure how good that was for retention

said that he had given a card to recruits as well. Their version also listed all the welfare facilities available to them, including phone numbers to ring if they needed personal help or guidance.

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I had one of those on my Basic Training. All it lists is the phone numbers of the Padre, ROSO (I think) and the welfare staff from your regiment. There isn't anything like "A PTI can only give you "x" amount of press-ups". The staff may have them, but we certainly didn't.

Yet another myth, in the same manner as the "slag in the guardroom who's dad was the Sergeant" story.